


Sweet as Blueberry, Bitter as Ash

by TearfulSolace



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Baking, F/M, Slice of Life, Tattoos, normal levels of Caleb angst, that time the discord said 'what if Caleb had secret tattoos' and my brain went 'okay', you can ignore the romance if you want
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:41:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22378120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TearfulSolace/pseuds/TearfulSolace
Summary: Caduceus tasks Jester to make the bread for dinner, and she's determined to do it, even if she's not one-hundred percent sure she's doing it right.Caleb is trying to enjoy the quiet that the Xhorhaus library provides, but there's someone in the kitchen making an awful lot of noise.When Caleb agrees to teach Jester how to make bread, she discovers one of his oldest secrets. (And it's not bread making.)
Relationships: Jester Lavorre & Caleb Widogast, Jester Lavorre/Caleb Widogast
Comments: 6
Kudos: 140





	Sweet as Blueberry, Bitter as Ash

**Author's Note:**

> This is so self-indulgent it's not even funny. It stemmed from someone posting this: https://schnetzle.tumblr.com/post/190370673987/modern-ubran-magic-au-caleb-has-magical-tattoos
> 
> And we discussed him having these secret tattoos that even Nott is barely aware of from when he would change out his bandages then BAM. Accidental Widojest.... or Friendly Caleb&Jester if you prefer. 
> 
> Of course there was the plot hole of them being in bathhouses together so.... *cough* magic *cough*.

Caleb was finally able to enjoy more than a few minutes to himself in the library. After all the jumping from place to place, he planned to make use of the time he had to transcribe his new spells. After the disaster that was Rexentrum, he just wanted some time alone. 

The door was left open so that Frumpkin could come and go as he pleased and Caleb heard someone moving about in the kitchen. The sounds were quiet enough that he could tune them out and continue his work. 

They  _ were  _ quiet enough to ignore. 

The subtle rummaging turned into a wooden spoon hitting a metal bowl repeatedly accompanied by grunting. Caleb sighed but the sound abated before he felt the need to interfere. 

Just as he was finally losing himself to the silence again, he heard a loud  _ thwack, _ something very heavy hit the kitchen counter, followed by a steady pounding sound. 

“For  _ gotts  _ sake…” He snapped the book he had been reading closed and tossed it to the table. Leaving his coat behind, he wandered into the kitchen to politely tell whoever it was to cease the incessant noise. 

Or he intended to. But when he turned the final corner to the kitchen he hadn’t been expecting the sight of Jester, covered in flour, pounding an overly large ball of dough as if she were Beau going to town on the training dummies. 

He watched her for a moment, trying to decide whether or not he was still upset at the noise, when she missed the dough and punched the edge of the counter. 

“Oooowwww!” She shook her bruised hand, sending more flour flying. “That wasn’t very nice…” She scowled at the dough before she moved to continue her previous movements. 

“Maybe it would not feel a need to fight back, if you were not acting as if it personally offended you, Blueberry.”

Jester let out a soft gasp as she turned suddenly to face Caleb, sending yet another puff of flour into the air. “Cay-leb! Don’t sneak up on me like that! And what do you mean? I’m kneading the dough...” Her voice dropped at the end of her sentence, her face scrunching up as it does when she’s unsure of herself. 

Caleb stood up straight from where he had been leaning on the door frame. “You cannot beat dough into shape. You have to coax it to do what you want. Gently. Here, I’ll show you.”

“What do you know about making bread, Caleb? Did they teach you that in school as part of your super secret spy training?” Jester turned away to find an extra rag, presumably to clean herself up. 

Caleb approached the counter to the left of where Jester had been standing and began rolling his sleeves to his elbow while Jester wiped off some of the flour that had found its way to her face. 

“ _ Nein _ . My  _ mutter _ . We would bake br--” He stopped speaking when he heard Jester gasp. 

“Cay-leb!! When did you get tattoos?!! Why didn’t you come to  _ me _ for them!”

Caleb’s heart dropped from his chest. Looking down to where he had finished rolling one sleeve up to his elbow, he saw the dark, winding maze-like ink that had been transcribed onto his skin over a decade ago by a past he just couldn't escape. 

He hadn’t even noticed. He was such a fool. He had gotten too comfortable in this house, with these people… He’d forgotten to use the ring on his middle figure to cast the illusion to hide those  _ blasted _ tattoos. 

“Ah… Ah..” Caleb stepped back from the counter. His brain came up blank. He'd lied to them for nearly a year. And now he'd screwed up. He frantically tried to pull the sleeve back into place, as if by doing so he could undo Jester seeing them. 

In his panic he had barely gotten the sleeve half way undone and three steps closer to the door before Jester's cool hands gently lay on top of his. "Don't hide them Cay-leb. They're pretty."

He felt her steady hands try to stop his from shaking as he stood frozen in the Xhorhaus kitchen. 

"I…" he hesitated. "They are not new…" he hated that his voice was barely a whisper. 

"But I've never noticed them before. Can I see?" Jester must have taken his silence as approval because she tilted his arm this way and that. "How far up do they go?"

"They…" Caleb stared at the profile of Jester's face as she traced one line of the maze up his forearm until it disappeared into his shirt. "They are all over my chest. And a few on my back."

"Are they like Astrid's?" Her violet eyes glanced up to meet his before returning her ministrations to his arm. 

He nodded before remembering that she wasn't looking. " _ Ja _ . Like Astrid's. But I hide them, instead of flaunt them…"

Jester traced another line gently to the inside of his elbow and he shivered at the sensation. She jumped slightly as if realizing what she was doing. "I'm sorry, Cay-leb. I can touch these up if you want?" She pointed to a few places where new scars had muddied the once clean lines. 

He removed his arm gently from her grasp and twisted the ring three times counterclockwise, activating the magic that hid the ink along his arms. Jester watched in amazement as line by line the ink seemed to disappear. But Caleb was painfully reminded that they never truly left. They would forever be a part of him. 

" _ Nein _ Jester. Let them fade…" he wasn't sure what would happen then. Would Jester tell the others? Would he have to lay out yet another aspect of his past to be dissected by the expositor Beau? By the mistrusting Fjord? Or silently judged by Mr. Clay? 

"Okay. But let me know if you change your mind. I can even fill in the gaps with pretty colors! Then you would have a rainbow on your arm!!"

"Okay…" still unsure of what to do next, Caleb stood awkwardly, waiting for the other shoe to drop. And when it didn't, he turned to leave. 

"Wait! Weren't you going to teach me how to make bread?"

Caleb half turned back to the kitchen. He hadn't noticed in his panic but by trying to wipe away the flour on her face, she had only smeared it more. 

"Do you still want me too?"

"Of course! If I can't figure out how to make the bread, Caduceus will be sad because he asked if I knew how and I told him I did. Because I _thought_ I did. I mean, I watched the ladies at the Chateau made it _aaaall_ the time and I thought I could too…." Jester was adorable when she rambled. 

How could he say no to his Blueberry?


End file.
